Government pothole fund to fill the gaps

West Berkshire receives extra £467k to repair weather-damaged roads

WEST Berkshire Council has received a financial sticking plaster to patch up the district’s pothole-stricken roads.

The council has been granted £467,317 of Government funding to help tackle roads badly affected by the recent winter weather and other damage.

The local authority’s head of transport and countryside Mark Edwards said: “We are very glad to receive this very welcome extra funding.

“It will help us get West Berkshire’s roads back into their usual good shape after what’s been a very hard winter.

“We work very hard every day to maintain and improve our roads, but there’s no escaping the fact that the snow, ice, rain and cold of the last few months has caused a lot of damage.

“This additional money will help us put that damage right and we’re already planning how best to spend it so residents genuinely benefit when they are driving, cycling, walking or riding around the district.

“In the meantime, we’d like to thank everyone who takes the time to report potholes and other highways issues at www.westberks.gov.uk/reportaproblem – it’s a big help to us and to all road users.”

West Berkshire’s funding is part of a further £100m Government package to help repair pothole and storm damage across the country.

The cash is on top of the £75m allocated through the Pothole Action Fund.

The Government said that the additional money would help repair almost two million potholes, as well as help protect the roads from any future severe weather.

Recently, Lee Dillon (Lib Dem, Thatcham North) claimed that the main transport routes from Thatcham to Newbury were littered with potholes.

He added that the council’s capital programme, which will see £55.5m invested in highways and transport over the next five years, was inadequate and didn’t go far enough to address the problem.

Conservative transport secretary Chris Grayling said: “People rely on good roads to get to work and to see friends or family.

“We have seen an unusually prolonged spell of freezing weather which has caused damage to our local roads.

“We are giving councils even more funding to help repair their roads all road users can enjoy their journeys without having to dodge potholes.”

Hampshire County Council is receiving just under £3m from the Government Pothole Action Fund.

The Government is also investing more than £900,000 in innovations using connected vehicles to help councils more efficiently manage and plan maintenance works.

The Government said that the trials would help provide councils with data to enable them to repair potholes before they occur.

Seeing Red Shute Hill had some works done there last weekend, seemed to be a start. Although they fixed some, but left others that were right next to the repaired ones . They were large enough to damage vehicles, so this seems a bit half hearted currently anyway. Any money is good , but with the roads being in disrepair long before this winter, you cant blame this season alone for the state of the roads.Plenty of countries have colder winters and hotter summers, but they just fix the roads properly , rather than shoddily.

No doubt the money will be wasted as the appointed contractors will continue to repair potholes as poorly as possible so that the pothole reappears a few weeks/days later. Council supervision appears non existent. As for the online reporting by the public most cases are ignored so that one pothole multiplies into several, Turnpike Road & Hambridge Road are prime examples.